 Articles
Voice Effect Marshalling
by Joel Harband February 5th 2008
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A Solution for Rapid
Cost-Effective Voice-Over Narration
A Solution
That Eliminates Professional Voice-Overs
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Voice Effect Marshalling - A Solution for Rapid Cost-Effective
Voice-Over Narration
To meet these challenges in a simple but effective way, Tuval’s
engineers developed the Voice Effect Marshalling (VEM) technology:
instead of recording a single narration for an entire slide, the
slide narration is built up from individual voice narration clips.
Individual Voice Narration Clips
The VEM technology defines two types of individual voice-over
narration clips:
- Object Voice Clips – Narration clips
that describe and explain specific screen text or graphic objects.
- General
Voice Clips – Narration clips that convey general information
about the slide such as introduction, thesis, and summary.
Narration
clips are implemented as voice sound effects in the PowerPoint
slide animation sequence in the Custom Animation panel.
Links Voice with Visual Animations
Objects that have voice effects are assigned visual animation
effects. The visual animation effects help the learner connect
a voice effect with its object by animating the object when the
voice is played. A simple analogy is a line of soldiers counting
off. When the first soldier counts his number, the rest of the
soldiers have their head and eyes turned to him. As each soldier
counts his number, he turns his head and eyes to the front. By
the “visual effect” of the soldier turning his head,
the commander can identify the soldier’s “voice effect” (count)
with him.
The Voice Effect Marshalling Process
Voice Effect Marshalling is the process by which the individual
voice effects and visual effects that were created are assembled
and ordered in the slide animation sequence so that:
- Objects
are animated one by one in the desired order.
- An object’s
voice effect is heard with the object’s animation.
- General
voice effects are integrated with the other effects in the desired
order, for example, an introduction effect is played at the beginning
of the sequence and the summary effect is played at the end.
The
Figure 01 below shows individual visual effects and voice effects
associated with text and graphic slide objects and an introductory
voice effect associated with the slide. Male and female voice effects
are used. The VEM process maps the visual and voice effects to
the slide animation sequence in the desired order. The voice effects
are heard during playback as a continuous slide narration as if
they were spliced together.
Figure 1: Voice Effect Marshalling Produces
a Continuous Synchronized Slide Narration
Benefits of Voice Effect Marshalling
Automatic Voice Synchronization: By adjoining the voice effect
for an object to its visual effect in the animation sequence, VEM
automatically synchronizes the voice with the object’s animation.
In addition, the voice effect can be triggered to play just before,
just after, or simultaneously with the visual animation.
Handles
Changes Easily: Because it builds the slide narration
from individual audio clips, VEM lets the user make many changes
in the slide narration by just rearranging the component clips:
removing clips, re-ordering clips and inserting clips. When re-recording
is necessary, only the relevant clips are re-recorded.
Mixes
Multiple Voices Automatically: Multiple voices
are automatically mixed by recording them on separate clips and
they are heard in the slide narration one after the other as if
they were on the same voice track.
Supports Learning Principles: Voice-over
narration can comprise both general orientation topics and detailed,
object-synched topics to significantly improve learning.
Back
Using Text-Based Voices – A Solution That Eliminates
Professional Voice-Overs
Text-based computer voices, otherwise known as text-to-speech
or TTS, let developers produce professional voice narration fast
by eliminating microphone recording and professional voice-overs.
Modern TTS voices, which are remarkably clear and effective, read
the narration script instead of the professional voice-overs. This
solution is used in combination with the VEM solution.
Benefits of Using Text-Based Speech
Using text-based speech in combination with VEM helps provide
rapid cost-effective voice narration in the following ways:
Professional Voice-Over Talents Eliminated: By
eliminating professional voice-over talents, voice narration can
be produced and updated anywhere at any time by script authors,
eliminating production delays. This supports distributed courseware
development.
Rapid Voice-Over Editing: Voice-over narrations
are updated with a text editor. After changing the narration
script the narration refreshes automatically.
Use Different Languages: With text-based voices
available in all major languages, multiple voices in different
languages can be easily combined in a presentation.
Store and Publish Verbal Content in Text: The
verbal text information entered by the user is stored in a database.
This text is organized and structured in both general and object-specific
sections, forming a valuable document for preserving important
verbal content and publishing as speaker notes.
Use as Subtitles: The text can also be used as
subtitles to accompany the narration.
Use Scenarios
VEM empowers the desktop user
to produce professional quality narrations easily and using text-based
voices makes it even faster and more flexible. There are many applications
for this technology:
Web-Based Training: A multi-national company
needs to provide frequent training to employees that work all over
the globe; new and updated courses are constantly being prepared.
To be able to serve all these employees at their place of work
in a timely fashion, the company’s training executives have
decided to use rapid web-based training courses. In order to create
and maintain the courses within the cost and time restrictions,
they have decided to produce the training voice narrations with
the VEM method.
On-Line Academic Courses: Today’s university
professors and high school teachers have classroom web sites
to post their courses for student learning and review. Having
an accompanying narration will improve the learning, but the
teaching load doesn’t allow much time to prepare one.
VEM is the method of choice to produce effective voice narrations
efficiently while saving teacher’s valuable time.
Business Presentations on the Web: Today many
small and medium businesses maintain web sites where they post
presentations that describe their company, products and services.
These presentations are more effective with a professional narration.
VEM is an affordable way for an ordinary business people to produce
quality narrations for their business presentations.
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